Marburg

In mid-July, we made a day trip to Marburg, a small medieval town with an endless row of half-timbered houses that we have never seen! 

Rathaus, a town hall in Marktplaz has a clock that chimes the hour and a mechanical rooster above it that flap its wings and crows the number of the hour. Luckily we caught the moment. The sound of crow was odd... well, kinda funny. I couldn't stop laughing at it. 

We had a lovely breakfast at Die Pause. I had tea and a roll, which our waiter recommended, with butter and apricot jam. J had cappuccino, a croissant and scrambled eggs. Our table next to a window was cozy. That was a nice break (die Pause)!

Not only the colorful half-timbered houses but also narrow cobbled streets, steep steps, old botanical gardens, riverside nature trails, and the castle on the hill, Marburg was like a town in a fairy tale. In fact, the famous Brothers Grimm studied at the collage in Marburg between 1802 and 1806 and it is said that Jacob and Wilhelm were impressed by the medieval flair of the town and inspired for their famous collection of fairy tales. Because of the links to the Grimm, the town sets up several objects related to their fairy tales here and there.

For example, the fish from "The Fisherman and His Wife"

"The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats"

"Frog King"

The candy house from "Hansel and Gretel"

The shoe from "Cinderella"... it was supposed to be too small for all but Cinderella. However, this one looked too big for everyone.

We visited Marburg castle, or Landgrafenschloss Marburg. The original castle was built in the 11th century and expanded time by time. Today it houses the Museum of Cultural History at the Philipps University of Marburg. There were medieval frescoes and artifacts. The models of the castle at different times were neat!

 

The first (second in the US) floor of the gray half-timbered house was the Brother Grimm's flat. It was very close to the beautiful Marktplaz.

Lunch time! We popped into Edlunds, a Swedish restaurant at Marktplaz. I am not sure whether J's beer was from Sweden, though.

For a starter, we tried a pickled herring plater. I am not familiar with Swedish pickled herring and don't know what they are supposed to be.

I had Grönsparris och Kungsmussling - Green asparagus fried in butter and seasonal mushrooms from the pan, served on fine tagliatelle, seasoned with Swedish meadow pesto, with freshly grated Parmesan. It was good but a bit oily and pretty salty for my taste. J had the same but with salmon fillet marinated in smoked oil. The salmon looked nice.

Ice cream time! We got a cup of gelato for each at Klingelhöfer, an old bakery/cafe near Marktplaz. Yum. 

 We walked a bit more. More half-timber houses were there!

Eventually time to go home came. We stopped by the original shop of Klingelhöfer that was located near our car park to pick up some treats. The bakery/cafe has been around in the town since 1887 and will celebrate their 135th anniversary in this October. The shop itself didn't look so old, rather modern today. We took two kinds of cakes away. One was Frankfurter Kranz - Viennese style sponge cakes, vanilla butter cream layers and crunchy hazelnut brittle toppings. Pretty good! The other was Dänische Kirschtorte - cherries, marzipan and cream puff topping. It was somewhat broken but tasted wonderful.

We also bought an artisan fruity nutty bread that consists of a mixture of wheat and spelled flour, roasted hazelnuts, dried sour cherries and cocoa bean pieces. It was the anniversary bread to celebrate 800 years of the city of Marburg. We were lucky to taste such a special bread!

What a wonderful trip to the enchanted town!